Process to dissolve the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation paused

The Vancouver mayor’s plans to get rid of the park board is facing another lengthy delay.

The City of Vancouver has put a pause on its process transitioning governance of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, marking another delay to its much talked about plan to fully collapse the board.

In December 2023, Mayor Ken Sim announced his plan to abolish the board and reallocate its responsibilities to city council in a bid to save money. In November last year, a report from the city’s Parks and Recreation Transition Working Group said the disintegration of the board would save the city approximately $7 million a year.

Removing the park board would require making an amendment to the Vancouver Charter, a provincial statute, and the city would need the legislature to vote on whether those changes could go ahead.

In a message sent to City of Vancouver staff and shared by Vancouver Park Board commissioner Thomas Digby, the city noted that the province made changes to the Vancouver Charter earlier this month, but made no mention of the park board.

“The provincial government did not introduce Charter amendments for consideration by the legislature in the spring session, which ended yesterday, May 29,” the statement read.

“The provincial government has reaffirmed its commitment to, at a future date, enact these legislative changes.”

In the meantime, any planning that was in place to prepare for a transition of governance has been paused.

“I am really pleased to have heard that the NDP is not going to move in this legislative session to abolish the park board,” Park Board chair Laura Christensen told CTV News on Friday.

“I am glad that the city is taking that as a cue to stop spending money and time on this transition committee.”

It was a sentiment largely echoed by Tom Digby, a Green Party park board commissioner, who was hoping the memo about the pause would be the end of the saga.

“We’re all hoping the mayor is going to move on,” Digby told CTV News. “I mean, the park board – he has made a mountain out of a molehill here. Normally we do our work in obscurity at a quiet low level, but we’ve been in the national news for a year and a half now.”

Both councillors elected in last month’s byelection said they would fight to save the park board, with councillor Lucy Maloney suggesting she heard little support for abolishing the elected board during her campaign – at least without a clear mandate.

“I spoke to hundreds of Vancouverites during the byelection campaign and overwhelmingly people were unhappy about the decision to axe the park board without any sort of process,” Maloney told CTV News.

In a statement Friday, Municipal Affairs Minister Ravi Kahlon said the provincial government will “continue to work with the city” regarding their request.

“We know how important it is for local governments to have all the tools they need to provide the good value and good governance that people deserve,” Kahlon wrote.

“During the spring session, we prioritized legislation to secure our economy in the face of Trump’s unjustified tariff threats.”

The legislature won’t sit again until October – and the ABC majority on Vancouver city council still wants to go ahead with scrapping the elected board – citing cost savings.

“I do think that the case is there in terms of the benefits to Vancouver residents and the cost savings to not have the two duplicate levels of governance,” ABC city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung told CTV News.

“What we want to do is put the most resources into our parks.”

In a statement, Sim called on the province to follow through with the amendment in the fall, saying he is frustrated with yet another delay.

He pointed out Vancouver is the only municipality in the country with a separate elected park board – arguing bringing the park board under council control would lead to “significant financial savings.”

Any information regarding the timing of any legislative changes will be released once the city receives it, the city said.

With files from CTV News reporter Martin MacMahon